


the clouds will clear in time(king's landing revisited)

by wherenearheisenberg



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Childhood Memories, Childhood Sweethearts, Coming of Age, F/M, Hearing Voices, Joffrey's Childhood, One last shot for joffrey, Parallels, Rare Pairings, Season 4 Spoilers, cersei is still a bitch, stupid feels
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-14
Updated: 2014-04-14
Packaged: 2018-01-19 10:09:27
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,152
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1465495
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wherenearheisenberg/pseuds/wherenearheisenberg
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>One last shot for Joffrey Baratheon. </p><p>"Let my name have one more moment in the sun before it disappears from the world." -Ser Dontos</p>
            </blockquote>





	the clouds will clear in time(king's landing revisited)

**Author's Note:**

> The thing was, before watching GoT, I thought Joffrey was a nice little fellow, so I had a crush on him. That was until i watched the series from the start. 
> 
> I hate him now but I thought about writing a oneshot for our favorite roast buddy. 
> 
> This oneshot is a "farewell party" for Joffrey this latest season, and a gift to Jack Gleeson for a job well done. 
> 
> Disclaimer: This is a fanfiction so what happens here is totally my doing. The OC is mine, but the other characters and background stories are all GRRM's. He doesn't like fanfictions, but we'll slip this one out.

He would always get his little mind lost in thoughts whenever he cleans his sword.  
  
A rustle of leaves broke him out of his reverie as he turned his head towards the sound. He saw nothing. Perhaps it was a hare, a small animal running about the shrubberies of the courtyard. But he thinks it might be someone, and his 9-year-old mind can't help but venture the woods with his sword. His mother tells him not to bother with the sword, as his guards would be there faithfully serving the prince of the Seven Kingdoms should something bad happen to him.  
  
But they were out of sight. Mayhaps he'll tell his mother, the queen, about their negligence. People who neglect their duties have no place in the court, much less, in the world. His mother said that, too.  
  
But he uses their absence to follow the rustle in the leaves, slowly, quietly, and he sees a white dove trotting the clearing its tiny feet. He sees how fragile it is, and wondered how crimson would mix with its pearly-white feathers.  
  
He moved a little closer to the little dove, raised his sword, and resolved to removing the wings first.  
  
"Don't!" A voice said. The voice didn't surprise him, but the sudden flight of the dove and its companions up in the sky caught him off guard, and he watched them fly off in the bluest sky he's seen since he was aware of what lies above him.  
  
When he turned to the voice that ruined his chance at a kill, he saw a girl covered in rags, no older than him.  
  
At the sight of his sword, she ran as fast as she could, leaving him to wonder how someone could dress so poorly at the presence of a prince.

* * *

  
He stomped out of the courtyard. How dare they speak to him like that? He is the heir of the Seven Kingdoms! Being his siblings will not change that fact. Myrcella said in a small voice how he shouldn't be next to their father in the Iron Throne, for the kingdom will surely see evil. They were playing that day, and he wanted to win, so he knocked Myrcella off, earning him the remark he did not like.  He got angry and left her crying, and went to her chamber to steal her cat from its cage. He thought of playing with it and let her know he's not playing with her anymore.  
  
With a soft meow, the cat did its best to struggle against his grasp, twisting and turning underneath his hand. He threw the cat on the ground. He drew the blade against the cat's belly and pierced it, drawing blood and cries from the cat. It didn't take long for the it to die.  
  
"No no no no!" A strangled cry came. It was the girl in rags. He never saw her again after the first time. It had been two summers past. He thought she came out where he first saw her. "Why did you kill him?" She asked with a sob. She was a peasant girl but he felt indignant when she eyed him accusingly. "My sister told me something I did not like. I made her pet pay for her insolence. Then she'll know not to fight back to the prince." He said.  
  
The girl stood, mouth agape. "You're the prince?"  
  
"You don't know I'm the prince?" He asked with incredulity. Everyone must know he is the prince.  
  
"No." She said as if she was told the most stupidest question in the world. "But you should not have killed this poor creature. It never did anything wrong to you."  
  
Then she ran away from him again, a bit slower this time. He looked around him and dared someone to tell him he was wrong.  
  
He forgot that he was alone.

* * *

  
The next time he saw her, it was on his 13th name-day. He told his mother he wanted to go hunting.  
  
"Don't you hunt everyday already, my sweet? You should spare this day to feast with your family." His mother said.  
  
"But I want to hunt, like I always do. Besides, it is my name-day. Shouldn't my interest be paramount to anything else?" He said. His mother sighed and sent a party to go with his son to hunt.  
  
Cersei looked over to her side and watched the King drink himself to oblivion.  
  
The prince found himself alone in the deepest part of the woods. He strayed away from his guards and found freedom from his mother his guilty pleasure. He was nearing a small stream when a wild bear approached his vicinity and posed significant hazard. He drew his sword and shouted at the beast to back off, as if it were to understand him somehow if it tried harder.  
  
After a few swings and ducks, he watched in dread as the bear slapped his sword a good distance away from him. He looked over to the bear's wild face and truly felt afraid for the first time in his life. He never hoped for his guards' company this much, nor a courage to deal with this himself.  
  
He was laying on the ground and could've died then and there if it weren't for the arrow that pierced the beast's neck.  
  
It dropped on the ground and what's left standing was the girl he saw only twice in his life. Revealing herself for the third time. She stood in all her glory, and he was surprised to see her not dressed in rags anymore, but rather a plain tunic and brown breeches. They looked old, compared to what his father's squire wore, and she still looked poor. But her hair was long and braided and she looked somewhat decent, if not lady-like. He never saw a woman at court wear breeches before, but to her it seemed fitting, together with the bow she held.  
  
She walked to him and offered her hand which he(stupidly) looked at. "Are you not standing up?" She asked, curiosity and impatience swirling along the lines. He stood up without taking the hand offered to him, refused to be helped by a girl, a commoner no less. But he remembered that she did, in fact, helped him already. He remembered his father told someone once to ask for anything he wanted after saving him from a wild boar during one of his hunting trips way back. He did the same.

"Make me a queen, perhaps?" the girl said, with a glint in her eyes that said "i'm mocking you". He mocked her back. "Maybe I will. A prince stays true to his word." 

"I'm a lowborn. It won't happen, I promise."

"Now you're the one making promises." he said.

"Just this once." she murmured with a hint of smile on her features. He was taken aback, but he liked it.

He heard the growl of her empty stomach, and they both laughed out loud. When his guards heard the sound, they found him laughing with no one.

* * *

 

He sneaked food from the palace and brought it to the outskirts of the courtyard where she would be hiding. They would feast on it and she'll take the leftovers home, hoping it lasts longer than it looked like it would.

Sometimes, Cersei would wonder why Joffrey eats so little during meals.

One day, he told the girl what happens inside the palace. The bad ones. And she would shake her head and tell him about the tales from the village. What her nan taught her. He found out her name this way.

"So your uncle was betrayed your family? Then why not kill him? If it was here in the palace his head will be put on a spike immediately" he said to her.

"It's not that easy." she sighed.

"And why not?" he asked with disbelief.

"Even a traitor may mend. I've known one who did."

"Who?"

She shrugged. "Anyone."

* * *

 

He was certain she was beginning to like him.

She would stay close to him when they meet at midnight. She would bring her bow and arrow and he would bring his sword. He would protect her but it was always she who does the saving.

"I like you."

"Me too."

"Of course you would like me. I'm the prince."

She rolls her eyes at him, taking a bite from a soft white bread he brought from the palace. "I meant I liked me too."

It was after a week he realized that he wanted to make her his queen.

* * *

 

His mother found out, eventually. She has more eyes and ears than he thought.

"She's a friend of mine." Cersei's brows furrowed. "Really? A friend?"

"Yes, mother."

"What do you do with her?"

"We eat together, and we tell stories to each other. It's harmless, don't worry."

Rats are never harmless, she thought. Sly and cunning. There will come a time when they're already feeding on you and you'll barely even notice.

"I'll talk to her, then. We're going to have a little chat." She said, and took his son's place at their meeting place.

Joffrey frowned.

* * *

 

He saw blood on their meeting place. Their usual place. He also found her ring lying on the grass beside it. A thin silver band with no engravings whatsoever.

He saw red and rushed to the queen's solar, screaming. "What did you do to her?!"

"She was a blood-sucking leech. Telling you to bring food for her when it's clearly not for her. And she endangered your life, sneaking you away like that. You should've known better, dear."

He wanted to hear her laugh and tell stories once more, but she was taken, probably killed.

As his mother combs his hair with her fingers, he remembered what he did to Myrcella's cat. He unclenched his fist, gazing the mark her ring gave his palms.

This was his mother's sin to him, among others he couldn't remember any longer.

* * *

 

When Ned Stark's head was brought on a spike, doves soared above him. His maniacal smile faltered, and looked at the crowd, as if to see if she would come out with her eyes that told him he was wrong.

_"Even a traitor may mend. I've known one who did."_

Ned Stark's head on a spike seemed to be more content than he was at the moment.

He hurriedly went inside the castle, never to look back on thousands of eyes staring at him.

* * *

 

Little dove, that's what his mother call Sansa.

She was not weak, but she wants to fly away, he reckons.

 _Maybe I'll cut off her wings,_ he mused to himself. And he remembers.

"Rape her for all I care." he drawled lazily while he sat idly on the Iron Throne.

 _"Don't!"_ he stiffened. He scanned the crowd before him, a couple of lords and ladies who know well not to cross their new king. Where is this coming from? It was many dreams ago when he would hear her vividly, still.

It was echo, and among the people in the court room he was only one who heard it. He didn't even notice his uncle Tyrion walking away with Sansa.

He watched the little dove flit away.

* * *

 

He liked to believe he never truly loved anyone besides himself.

"The more people you love, the weaker you are." his mother always said to him. Now she gushes out "I love you" repeatedly while he chokes on his own spit. His face is red, and his eyes alarmed. He doesn't understand what's happening, except that he's dying and his senses zero in his neck, where he wore the ring with a chain over his throat and the drank the poison under his skin.

His eyes start seeing black dots, and he reaches out for nothing.

When he opened his eyes, he was alone in the courtyard. No knights to guard him, no mother to annoy him, no people to swarm themselves over him. He hadn't felt this free in years.

He walked around, as if seeing the place for the first time. He doesn't feel any pain, anger of any kind, nor desire to see blood. He was like a child once more. He touched the leaves like they were precious, and the smile on his face seemed permanent.

Then he heard a rustling sound behind the shrubs. A familiar feeling crept on his spine, and he walked towards the source of the sound. There, behind the leaves, stood a hare. He crouched down beside it when he heard a whistle.

It was her. The girl in his dreams. She was dressed as fine as him, but he couldn't remember if she was as happy as the last time he saw her.

She offered him her hand and he took it.

They ran away to the woods until their backs were no longer visible.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Aaaaaaand that was that. There were Narnian references such as the "even a traitor may mend" line. It was Edmund Pevensie's and I just saw it fitting so.


End file.
